


The good kind of weird

by imperfekti



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-16 03:27:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13045533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imperfekti/pseuds/imperfekti
Summary: What if Tachibana and Chitose never played tennis together as kids and met as adults instead.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Leaves_Crown](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leaves_Crown/gifts).



> This fic is based on Leaves_Crown's prompt - it took me a while, but I hope you will enjoy it!
> 
> This will likely be a bit longer than what I usually write, so it's interesting for me too to see how this goes. I have more of this in store, but don't really know how long this is going to be or long it's going to take. So expect continuation but don't hold your breath.
> 
> Un-betaed, non-native, corrections welcome!
> 
> 31.12. 2017: Made a small edit in one of Chitose's lines.

Some time before seven in the evening, the hot August sun was about to set somewhere over the sea in the west as Tachibana Kippei was making his way through the familiar streets of Kumamoto.

He hadn't been there in a good while, his work as a PE teacher in Fudoumine high school keeping him tied up in the capital most of the time. Right now school was out though and he had a few free weeks to rest for a bit.

Coming back to his hometown hadn’t been his own idea, but it had probably been for the best. If it hadn’t been for his parents and sister insisting on a family trip to Kumamoto to visit the grandparents, Kippei probably would have stayed in Tokyo for the vacation. And had he stayed, he would probably have found his way back to the school grounds to check in on his boys. The tennis team was doing well this year, having attracted several ambitious individuals who had their eyes on making it to the Nationals. The same could not be said about most of the sports teams under his wings.

Kippei had played a bit of tennis in his youth, but never progressed all that far before normal life had sucked him in. Now, seeing the young guys putting so much effort into a sport he had some personal interest in, he had been putting more time into work than usual lately. Maybe too much, even - before the summer break had started, the punks had had the nerve to tell him to stay out, saying he was showing wrinkles under his eyes and that he should be chilling and getting laid for a change. He had thanked them for their cheekiness by putting them through brutal circuit training on the last day before the vacation.

But now he was all the way here, removed from the option to meddle. Physically, at least. Kippei cut off the line of thought before he got the urge to text the team captain to ask how they were doing.

It had been a while since the whole family had been able to take time to go south all at the same time. Kippei was glad they had done that now - the grandparents weren't getting any younger, and neither was their house, the one he and An had grown up in. That being the case, they had been renovating things here and there since they had arrived last weekend. With seven people helping out, including An, their parents, dad's brother and their kids they were getting a lot done. It wasn’t exactly resting, but it suited Kippei better to actually work on something together, instead of lying around with his parents fussing about, kids climbing all over him and asking him to play with them and An pestering him for advice on how to deal with her latest boyfriend (a guy who Kippei wasn’t sure he approved of at all).

Still, with all those people, the house was noisy, and Kippei was well used to living on his own now. A man needed his own space, after all, and that was the reason for him making his way alone through the city that evening, on his way to a bar he remembered from way back. The last time he'd been there he and his friends at the time hadn’t even been old enough to be drinking - officially, at least.

He found the place he had in mind close to Hanabata park. Not the most tempting looking place, the easiest to find nor one of the most popular ones nearby littering the Ginza street and its surroundings - in other words, just the right kind of cozy and unpretentious for Kippei’s taste.

When he stepped inside the izakaya on the second floor up from the street level, one of the bartenders, a woman younger than him immediately gave the customary high-pitched "welcome". After a quick look at the rather dimly lit bar, with a few people either alone or in small groups, Kippei decided on sitting by the relatively empty counter. As he took his seat, the young woman approached him.

"What can I get you?"

Taking quick glance at the list of drinks written on the wall behind the bar counter, Kippei said: "An asahi for now, and something savoury."

"Maybe a yakitori plate or gingko nuts?"

"Yakitori, then. Thanks.

"Thank you, just a second!"

Having made his order, Kippei relaxed on the stool and turned to take a better look at the place. It was the same place as before, alright, but it had changed somehow since the last time he had seen it. Was it some new furniture, the new people or what, Kippei couldn't tell. The prints on the walls looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t be sure - it wasn't exactly the interior design he and his friends had come here for in their late teens.

By that time Kippei had already been pretty sure girls weren't his thing, but he had given some a shot just to be sure. One of them he had met in this place, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember her name anymore. She had had the same bleached hair as he himself back in the day. They hadn’t lasted a week. These days he’d give a lecture to his male students if he ever caught them them acting in the same selfish way as he had back then. Times sure had changed.

The girl behind the counter was quick to deliver the beer, chicken and a moist towel for him to wipe his hands on. Business seemed a little slow at the moment, so she went back to chatting with some guy and girl around her age, probably her friends. Kippei used to know some of the staff by name, too, when he still lived here. Nowadays it was mainly the neighborhood konbini in Tokyo where he could claim any semblance of familiarity with the staff. 

A few minutes into his food, beer and the increasing feeling of being old, Kippei’s thought process was diverted when the door clanked open and a new customer was welcomed in with the same loud greeting as Kippei a while ago. Hearing the noisy, obvious even if unusual sound of wooden sandals clopping on the bar floor, Kippei instinctively turned to take a look.

The casual look turned out longer than intentioned. Contrary to the mental image that came with the traditional geta sandals, the new customer was a tall guy around the same age as him. He had a face Kippei thought anyone would classify as handsome, but the way he was dressed didn’t exactly speak of a fashionable young professional. The white tunic he was wearing had more wet than dry parts, apparently from a sudden rain, and his jeans were looser than what you usually saw people wear these days. 

While Kippei was still looking, the guy made his way to the counter and dropped down on a chair two seats away, wiping at the raindrops and the black strands of hair stuck on his forehead.

“Gimme an umeshu”, he said to the waiter, and from his tone Kippei immediately knew he was a local.

“Sure thing. Anything else?”

“You have horsemeat?”

“Sorry, we’re out today. How about chicken or fish?”

“Oh. Well…”

The guy seemed to notice Kippei just then, and specifically the plate in front of him, and leaned to his direction to question him.

“That’s the chicken, right? Is it any good?”

He had a nice voice too. A little weird, maybe, but deep, the kind that made you notice it was different from most others. Kippei cleared his throat.

“Uh, yeah. It’s good.”

“Cool.” The guy’s teeth were white in contrast to his tanned skin as he flashed a smile at Kippei before turning back to talk to the girl. “I’ll take the same thing as that guy, then.”

As the waiter went on to comply with the order, Kippei glanced at the guy again.

There was no way around it: he was good-looking for sure. The rain that had made parts of his shirt stick to his skin had done nothing to flatten his thick hair, some of it curling around his face. While Kippei wasn’t that into the type that put way too much effort into looking their best, nor the purposefully weird hipster type you saw in Tokyo, this guy had traits from both but didn’t really match either stereotype. The closest word that came to mind was hippie, but for all Kippei knew, maybe that was just the newest trend that he had no clue about.

Well, at least by the first impression he didn’t seem stuck-up. Kippei was definitely more okay with a bit weird than stuck-up.

Since the ice was already broken and he was feeling sociable enough, Kippei figured he might as well say something back instead of just sitting there in quiet. 

“It started raining?”

The guy didn’t take two seconds to answer, apparently welcoming the company straight away.

“Yeah. Thought I might as well stop here and wait it out.”

“Shouldn’t take too long if the forecast is right.”

“Oh, nice. Didn’t check it today.”

The guy picked at his tunic, apparently trying to put some space between the damp cloth and the skin on his chest and shoulders - which, Kippei noted, where skinnier than his own. Didn’t seem like the athletic type.

“Seems we’re getting a couple of sunny days before more rain.”

“Well, that’s something at least. I like the sun.”

The guy glanced back at Kippei’s plate, making him realize he hadn’t taken a bite in a while. 

“So, those skewers actually any good or were you just being polite for that girl?”

“I wasn’t”, Kippei snorted. “Don’t really see the point of complimenting food if it’s not worth it.”

“Heh, that’s a good policy you got there!”

“Seems like common sense to me.”

The bar girl soon made her way back with a ‘sorry for the wait’, placing the yakitori plate, water and a small glass of umeshu in front of the guy. Throwing a casual ‘thanks’ at the girl, he pushed his plate and glasses next to Kippei’s and moved to sit next to him. He didn’t ask if Kippei would mind - not that he would have.

“So”, the guy continued while wiping his hands on the towel, “where’re you from?”

Kippei wasn’t expecting that - neither the personal question, nor the guy making him sound like a outsider.

“Huh? Well, here, originally. But I live in Tokyo.”

This time it was the other guy’s turn to be surprised, and he seemed to take a better look at Kippei.

“What, you’re from here? Didn’t catch it from your sound. Been gone for a while?”

“Yeah, well… More or less ten years now.” He was 29 now, and the move due to his dad’s transfer was after the end of high school.

“Aah, I see. I guess you lose some of the dialect in that time. So, Tokyo, huh? What for?”

“I work there.”

“What kind of work?”

The guy wasn’t holding with his questions back at all. Or maybe Kippei had been gone too long, if he was expecting some polite distance or something like ‘if you don’t mind me asking’ to soften the tone. Things were a bit different here in the south - and he wasn’t a Tokyoite at the core, either.

“I’m a PE teacher in high school.”

“Oh, cool. You like your job?”

“Well, yeah. Can’t complain on most days. And especially not on the summer vacation.”

“Your family still lives here?”

“Yeah, the grandparents. You too?”

“Yep, until now at least. In the western ward. Might need to move at some point though.”

Kippei was feeling a little weird about the conversation - it was already way more familiar than one would expect from a random chance meeting like theirs - but since the guy was acting all casual about it himself, and seemed like an okay guy, Kippei went with the flow.

“Why’s that?”

“Well you know, after living here most of my life, I guess it just feels like the time to see life somewhere else for a change.” The guy made eye contact with Kippei. “You recommend Tokyo?”

“Depends on what you like, I guess.” Kippei shrugged his shoulders. “Basically there’s more of everything, except for space and green.”

The man grinned at him. “More teams to support for a jock like you? Better than the pride of the town, Roasso?”

Kippei laughed at that. At least the local soccer team was in J2 League these days. He and his friends at the tennis circles had used to talk all kinds of shit about the not-so-glamorous local football guys when they were still around and the team used to play in Under Grade League.

“Can’t say I’ve stuck to cheering my hometown team, got to admit. But I’m not much of a soccer guy anyway.”

“Well, me neither. Or much of a sport person at all, actually.”

So Kippei had guessed right. He was getting slightly curious about what kind of a person this guy was, then, but didn’t quite get around to outright asking about it. “Yeah?”

The guy waved his hand apologetically. “Not that I have anything against it, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“No problem, I wasn’t.”

The guy smiled again. Maybe it was the whiteness of his teeth that made Kippei take such note of it. But it really was a nice smile. 

Next, the guy stuck out his hand, looking Kippei in the eye.

“I’m Chitose.”

Kippei found himself smiling back at him as he took the offered hand. Chitose's grip was warm and strong.

“Tachibana.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy birthday, Chitose!
> 
> I made a slight change to one of his lines in the previous chapter - nothing that would matter much for this part though.
> 
> I've been looking into the Kumamoto dialect lately, and wish I knew how to incorporate that into English.

They took their time in the bar, eating, talking, getting to know each other. They went over their school history in Kumamoto to see if they had crossed paths at some point, but with no remarkable results: they had never been in the same school or in the same circles. One of Kippei’s classmates in junior high might have been friends with some of Chitose’s, but they couldn’t be sure.

Chitose was pretty vague about his profession, calling it ‘this and that’. He had gone to university to study philosophy - something Kippei wouldn’t have guessed by his looks - but had decided it wasn’t worth the probable unemployment or ending up working on something totally different, and dropped out after a while. At some point he had worked in an izakaya, and since it had been popular with tourists, he had picked up a bit of Chinese and had ended up doing some odd gigs at the city’s tourism office due to that, but hadn’t assimilated into the working culture in a municipal organization and left.

Listening to him, Kippei thought his own life seemed pretty straightforward in comparison. Not that it was a bad thing - he had done what suited him, but he couldn’t help feeling something like respect towards the apparent independence and confidence with which this Chitose seemed to approach his life choices, even if they didn’t exactly match mainstream standards.

Chitose asked him more about sports, so Kippei ended up telling him about tennis. He seemed interested enough. He asked if Kippei ever missed it, or wondered if he should have gone professional - even dropped in a line about him seeming strong enough for it. Kippei tried not to read too much into it - though Chitose’s curved smiles and the occasional intensity of his eyes did call up some questions. But not knowing the guy, he thought that for now he was better off assuming all this easy-going familiarity and compliments were just the kind of person he was in general.

But damn, did they get along easily. And so, when they eventually finished their first plates of chicken, the second drinks and a shared cup of roasted ginkgo nuts, neither of them took a step back and said “thanks for the company, but I have to get going now”.

Instead, when the place started getting more lively against the evening, Chitose turned on his bar stool to fully face Kippei and cocked his head.

“So, want to head somewhere else? Don’t know about you, but it’s getting crowded for my taste.”

Kippei raised an eyebrow at the vague “somewhere else”, but since he wasn’t in any hurry to be anywhere and Chitose was good company, there wasn’t much reason to say no. Another beer or something on a summer evening, why not.

“Yeah, okay. Let’s head out.”

They paid their bills separately and left, making their way down the stairs and on to the street. The rain had died, but the ground was still wet, shining in the light from the street lamps and advertisements. The air was warm and moist.

Shoving his hands into his jeans’ pockets, Chitose looked up in the sky.

“Huh, it became dark while we were in there. Didn’t realize.”

“You need to be somewhere tonight?”

“Nah. Just didn’t notice the time go by.”

Whether he really enjoyed Kippei’s company that much, or was flirting, or was just a bit air-headed, Kippei still couldn’t tell. Chitose didn’t seem to be waiting for a reply though, and when he started walking, Kippei followed him without a remark.

Walking next to him, Kippei noticed again how tall Chitose was. In a way, it was a bit annoying - he wasn’t used to feeling shorter than the people around him. Some of the centimeters came from the geta though, noisy on the stony pavement.

“Don’t see too many people our age wearing those anymore.”

“What, these?” Chitose kicked one foot up a bit in the middle of a step and laughed. “Don’t know why, these are way better than some plastic crap if you ask me.”

“Heh, aren’t you the environmentalist.”

“Maybe. But it’s great, I get these from our neighbor, handmade. And when they’re done, my old man burns them in the kiln. That’s recycling for you.”

“Kiln?”

“He’s a potter”, Chitose explained, as if it should have been obvious. “Has a workshop a bit out of town.”

Somehow Kippei felt that started to explain some things. An artisan’s son - probably not the conservative, traditional type, but a bohemian with an free upbringing, the kind he sometimes inwardly grinned at when he came across the same impression with the female art teachers in his school. Kippei had mostly labeled them as some kind of sensitive, wannabe artists though - a very different image from this guy.

“Heh, that’s cool. Maybe my grandma has some stuff from him. The older she gets, the more she keeps going on about supporting the local crafts.”

“Hah, figures. It’s mostly the oldies who keep the business going.”

“Not the easiest way to make a living?”

“Yeah, not really. Wouldn’t recommend if you wanted to make money.”

“Yeah, but I guess I’m the same though”, Kippei mused. “The salary is secure at least, but it’s not much. And the rents are crazy.”

“Ever thought about moving out of the city?”

“Sure, but not that seriously. I got my younger sis living in there, and I happen to like the school and the kids.”

“You seem like the committing type.”

There was laugh in Chitose’s voice, but it also sounded like a deeper observation. Kippei thought about his teenage misadventures with girls, and nowadays the occasional hook up with this or that guy he never told anyone about, and shrugged, looking ahead instead of at Chitose.

“Well, don’t know about that.”

From the edge of his vision, he could tell Chitose was still looking at him.

“What about a girlfriend, you got one there in Tokyo?”

That made Kippei glance back at him, but he couldn’t really read Chitose’s expression.

“Uh, no.”

“Why not?”

Damn, he was straightforward. As much as the guy was easy to talk to, Kippei wasn’t about to go so much into personal detail with a guy he’d met a couple of hours ago that he’d start opening up about his orientation.

Even if a part of him wanted to test his reaction.

“Geh, just not worth the trouble I guess.”

Somehow Chitose’s smile made him wonder if that hadn’t been vague enough. The topic was gradually making him uncomfortable - too much guessing and playing. He tried being casual about it when he continued.

“What about you?”

Chitose shrugged, still smiling. “Same. Can’t be bothered.”

Kippei laughed at that. “Picky about you effort, huh?”

“Hell yeah”, Chitose laughed as well. “No point living your life for others’ expectations, right?”

“I guess so.”

They were getting to the end of the street, and the bars were getting fewer in between. The flow of people was the opposite to where they were going. Young people in groups and men still in their work shirts were heading out to spend the late summer evening in air-conditioned bars and food joints. Kippei could already feel sweat forming on his skin from the warmth, even if it was less oppressive than during the day. Another cold beer would really be good a idea soon.

“So, you know some good places for a drink around here? Have to admit I don’t anymore, since moving out.”

“Oh, you want to sit down somewhere?”

“Uh, I thought that was the plan?”

“Well, that’s cool too. I’m just kind of in the mood for walking.”

Well, that was a bit weird. Did you normally get random people from a bar to take a walk with you? Kippei couldn’t think of anyone he knew who would do that.

“You mind?”

He found he didn’t.

“No, not really.” He considered it for a second. “But let me get something cold from a machine then.”

They stopped at the next one that came up. Buying beer from a vending machine made Kippei feel a bit like a teenager again, and when he mentioned it, Chitose could relate. When they were young, they had both spent some time calculating the cheapest way to get most alcohol content with least amount of money. Chitose had been especially efficient in counting that, making him popular company within those kind of circles.

Continuing their walk randomly around the nearby blocks, Kippei pointed out places that had changed after he had moved out of Kumamoto and what had been there before. Some of them Chitose didn’t know, while some of them made him almost childishly excited and then nostalgic to remember - for example, the local old arcade that had been so much crappier and therefore atmospheric than the new chain arcade. Not that he played games anymore, but still. They contemplated going in for a while, to refresh memories, but decided not to afterall, with Kippei still in the middle of his beer and kids crowding most of the arcades they walked past.

At some point they crossed the Shirakawa river, and soon enough ended up on the street by the smaller river lining the city’s pride, the Kumamoto castle.

Chitose told him about a field trip there in elementary school. A bunch of other boys had gotten to try on a samurai costume, but not him, since the kids’ versions of armor had already been too small for him. He said he still held a grudge, but with the laugh accompanying the story, Kippei could tell he didn’t really care. And if Kippei knew kids at all, the event probably just made the other boys more jealous of his height. He told Chitose as much, and he seemed skeptical of it. Being that tall, he just probably couldn’t relate.

In the middle of their light talk, Kippei’s phone suddenly rang.

“Oh, sorry”, Kippei said as he dug up the phone from his pocket.

Chitose didn’t seem to mind. “Nah, go ahead.”

The screen told him two things: first of all, it was An. Second of all, it was already approaching ten. Not that it was that late really, but he had said he wouldn’t be out long when he set out from home earlier.

“Hey An, what’s up?” he said to the phone, mouthing a soundless ‘it’s my sister’ to Chitose, who gave him a smiling nod.

“Hey, where are you? Grandpa is asking about you, we thought you’d be home by now.” 

She didn’t sound too worried over the phone - most likely she was doing a favour by calling.

“Just still out on a walk. You need me for something over there?”

“Not really, just wondering. Are you heading home soon? I want something from the store.”

Kippei glanced at Chitose, who was also looking at him, now with a questioning smile. His loose shirt was flowing subtly in the evening breeze, face partly shadowed by his hair from the light of the nearby street lamps. It really was dark already.

Kippei didn’t immediately feel like saying yes to An and going home, but also realized it would have been natural to do just that at that point.

When Kippei didn’t answer yet, An went on: “Wait, are you with someone?”

“Eh, well, yeah.” Kippei averted his eyes from his company as he was about to change the story a bit to avoid the actual explanation. “I ran into a friend here.”

“Oh, nice! I was thinking you needed to do something like that.”

An’s voice sounded unnecessarily excited over the phone, and Kippei got a bad feeling she was immediately making wrongs assumptions.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing! Well, have fun. I’ll tell the parents you’ll be out for the night. Bring me a melon soda in the morning. Bye!”

“Hey, wait --” was all he got in before his sister cut the call.

Chitose laughed at his apparently annoyed reaction. “They miss you at home?”

“Well, not really. But she totally got the wrong impression”, Kippei said with a sigh. An was always way too quick to jump into conclusions - she had been pestering him about getting a girlfriend earlier, and probably read behind his excuse just now.

Still, Chitose’s face seemed to shift a bit with that.

“How so?”

“Well, you know...” Kippei started, but actually wasn’t sure how to continue. Did he just accidentally make this really awkward?

Chitose didn’t seem bothered though. He did hum as if he made some kind of a realization - what exactly, Kippei had no idea.

Before he got any further with that thought, Chitose spoke up, again with his smile.

“Well, if you still have time tonight, want to stop by at my place?”


End file.
